


Reversal

by Lirillith



Category: Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Genre: Disturbing Themes, F/F, Gen, Magic, Non-Graphic Violence, Psychological Horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-28
Updated: 2011-10-28
Packaged: 2017-10-25 20:54:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/274691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lirillith/pseuds/Lirillith
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In this timeline, Kyoko is the one who transforms into a witch.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reversal

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a prompt by [](http://redefined.dreamwidth.org/profile)[**redefined**](http://redefined.dreamwidth.org/) at [](http://fic-promptly.dreamwidth.org/profile)[](http://fic-promptly.dreamwidth.org/)**fic_promptly**.  I think this predated the game, and I certainly wrote it before I had any knowledge of the game, so this isn't Ophelia.

    There were apple trees and roaring fires, and shards of stained glass everywhere.  The familiars looked like puppets, on strings or sticks, turned into silhouettes by the light of the fires.  "Come _on!_ " Homura shouted, hauling Sayaka by the arm, but her raised voice didn't even seem to reach the girl.  She followed Homura mechanically.  Her soul gem, in her hand, was clear, but not shining; Homura knew it would begin darkening soon if she wasn't careful. 

    Normally, if Mami was alive to smooth the introduction of Sakura Kyoko and Miki Sayaka, the two would form a partnership of some sort.  Prickly, characterized by arguments and disagreements about approach, but a partnership.  If this was the case, Sayaka would pass the lion's share of the grief seeds to Kyoko, believing that faith and determination would be enough for her, until it was too late.  This time they must have reversed that pattern.  Homura froze the flames and glass and puppets, and the sudden stillness seemed to wake Sayaka from her shock. 

    "What did you..." she began, and Homura seized her other arm. 

    " _This_ is what happens," she said.  " _This_ is why you can't just bypass grief seeds."  She was angry, she realized.  In all of these timelines, Sakura Kyoko - tough, unsentimental, a survivor by nature - had never given in to despair.  Miki Sayaka had, so often she now barely hoped to prevent it, despite knowing what it always did to Madoka.  It was hard not to blame the reversal of the pattern on the girl before her, the girl whose soul gem, clutched awkwardly in front of her now, was already beginning to swim with motes of black.  "If I give you a grief seed now, will you use it?"  She was carrying on a fight from another history.  This Sayaka had never indicated before that she wouldn't use grief seeds.

    "Why?  What good would that do?" 

    "Do you want Kyoko to continue suffering like this?"

    "She's suffering?"

    Homura held her tongue, looking from Sayaka to the frozen flames, the broken glass, the grasping marionettes.  When she returned her gaze to the girl's face, Sayaka's eyes were swimming with tears.  "You need to let me go if you want me to use a grief seed," Sayaka said, finally, subdued. 

* * *

    Kyoko - the witch - looked like a puppet herself, a skeleton drawn on paper, with strings flapping from its hands and feet and a noose hanging around its neck, the rope dangling.  In place of its sternum was a symbol, outlined in red - red that dripped, like it was blood - that looked like the pattern Kyoko's outfit had made around her soul gem when she transformed.  It had always reminded Sayaka of an ankh, from a picture she'd seen in World History, but with another oval inside the main one.  The central oval was missing, though.  And then it blinked open, as an eye that looked like Kyoko's, eyelashes and blood-red iris, turned sideways. 

    "Save the crying for later," Homura said, in that deadly silent tone of hers - she'd reverted to calm after she'd given Sayaka the grief seed, and had led the way though the labyrinth, mowing down puppet-familiars with some kind of automatic gun - and Sayaka reflexively reached up to wipe her eyes.  She hadn't realized she was crying. 

    "Let me do this," Sayaka said, drawing the first of her swords from her gem.  "It was because of me that she..." _That she wasted power on familiars.  That she didn't have enough grief seeds.  That she lost hope, because I was always crying on her shoulder about Kyosuke..._

    "You can't handle her alone."

    "I don't care!" Sayaka shouted, as she sprang at the skeleton.  She hoped she could strike the eye while it was closed.  She didn't think she could face it when it was open. 


End file.
